1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing data. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computer instructions for evaluating software.
2. Description of Related Art
When analyzing a company as a prospective target for partnership or acquisition, it is critical that a determination is made by the purchasing company to determine whether the products or solutions offered by the target company meet the business needs and fit into the business strategy of the acquiring company. This determination also includes identifying the investment needed to bring those products up to par with comparable products. As a result, the acquisition costs involved in purchasing a company with its software product or products is a great concern. Much effort goes into determining what costs are present. Some of these acquisition costs include, for example, the investment of time and/or money needed to modify the product to sale in other markets. For example, a software product coded using Unicode is easier to modify for use in markets with different languages than products coded using a proprietary code. Another acquisition cost involves legal exposure for the software product that is being evaluated for acquisition. These and other factors are currently identified using due diligence teams that conduct interviews to determine the architectural and technical capabilities of the software product.
Understandably, these team members cannot be subject matter experts in all aspects of software design and development. As a result, a superficial analysis is made or the team is expanded to include subject matter experts. Both choices have drawbacks. To date, superficial analysis has cost companies many millions of dollars of unplanned yet required development costs. For example, un-translated software products from acquired companies need to be translated into many languages to be useable along side other software products for companies with a global market. Often times, reluctance is present to involve too many people in private discussions and a reluctance also is present to exclude subject matter experts from examining proprietary code and architectures of the software products.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer instructions for evaluating the acquisition costs for a software product.